Life - A Potrait

“Please don’t go, stay back!” is what I kept chanting to her all day. I was at my creative best giving her all possible reasons as to why she shouldn't leave. She kept laughing at my immature request and she in her style just talked me through it. I knew I was making a futile attempt, but don’t know why I kept trying. Trying to convince her not to travel. I have never stayed away from her in the last one year. But now when I look back it sounds foolish to me what I did that day. I was sure she would never cancel her trip.

She was as always in her witty best when she tried hard to distract my mind of her travel, and tried to divert my mind off her travel. As I helped her in her packing, she kept drawing me into different conversations, but somehow I felt like a visiting faculty who kept walking in and out of her conversations. My mind was very pre-occupied with the thought of her not being around starting the next day.

We hardly spoke on the way to the airport. We seemed like two strangers travelling together. Sensing my frame of mind, she too felt the best thing to do was stay silent rather than giving me an opportunity to start all over again. She had heard enough of it all day long.

We finally arrived at the airport. As I took her bags from the car and kept it on the trolley, she gave me that “Enough!!! Let Go!!! Smile please….” look. And I did precisely that. Of course I had never said a no to her previously, and how could I not listen to her. As she spread her arms, like a small kid I ran into her arms and cuddled her tight. With a small peck on my forehead she said “Don’t miss me!!! I will be fine. You take care of yourself!!!”

It’s been a year since Ananya and I have known each other. We met fortuitously. A dumb girl is what I thought of her when I first saw her. I was setting up my home and to fill up the emptiness at home I wanted to adorn the home with some art. It was in one such art exhibition that I met Ananya. Blessed with a pretty face she was any artist’s portrait. She was someone who was a perfect contender to become a brand ambassador of an energy drink. Dressed in a black saree, she was full of energy speaking incessantly to people who flocked around her. Animated she was, and expressive. There was an aura that surrounded her. For a few moments I was engulfed in that aura and forget about the very reason I was there.

After having spent well over couple of hours at the gallery, I finally zeroed in on two paintings. No particular reason that I picked them. As I approached the event manager about my decision to buy them, I was told that since these paintings were on display for the entire duration of the exhibition I will have to wait. They took down my request and I was given an address from where I could pick it up after a week.

Sometimes we feel the unexpected and the coincidental things always happen only in movies. And that’s exactly how I too felt when I walked into the office to collect the paintings that I had liked the other day. It felt like it was all scripted to perfection and Ananya and I were destined to meet. The paintings that I liked where all her piece of work. For a moment I was proud of my selection. But was it the painting that I was proud off or the painter? On learning about me and intention of visit, she was excited that I had actually bought two of her paintings and in that one was very close to her heart.

It took me a while to digest the fact that someone as pretty as her was actually an artist. We all have some preconceived notion of various professions and the people who work in those professions. Ananya was someone who proved me wrong completely. She was curious to find out why I had chosen her paintings and what was I planning to do with them? I told her I was setting up my home and felt her two paintings will add to the exquisiteness of my house. Being the lively person she was, she instantly volunteered to visit my home and help me find the best place for the two paintings. Seeing her excitement and eagerness I couldn't resist. I guess it’s always hard for any man to turn down a pretty woman.

“That’s how I met Ananya first, Sneha”

(To be Contd.....)